West Bengal: Trial Run Of India’s First Under-Water Metro To Start On 9 April

Trial run of India’s first underwater Metro Rail below the river Hooghly flowing by Kolkata, will start this Sunday (9 April). 

According to Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation (KMRC) officials, two six-coach rakes will speed down the twin tunnels between Esplanade and Howrah Maidan, making it the first time that trains will run under a river in India. 

Tunneling of the 4.8 km stretch between Esplanade on the east bank of the Hooghly and Howrah Maidan on the west bank, was completed a year ago, but the KMRC authorities were waiting for the completion of the 2.5 km stretch between Sealdah and Esplanade before starting commercial operations. 

But since this 2.5 km stretch between Sealdah and Esplanade is yet to be completed, it has been decided to start operations between Esplanade and Howrah Maidan, without waiting for all construction works on the Sealdah-Esplanade stretch to get completed. 

Work on this stretch has faced repeated and long delays due to three major subsidences at Bowbazar since August 2019. The west-bound tunnel of this stretch has faced repeated cave-ins. 

The two rakes for Sunday’s (9 April) trial will be transported from the Metro Rail’s Salt Lake depot to Esplanade through the east-bound tunnel between Sealdah and Esplanade.

From Sealdah, the two rakes will be pushed by a battery-powered locomotive since the east-bound tunnel to Esplanade doesn’t have electrified tracks as yet. 

The twin tunnels under the Hooghly are at a depth of 520 m. The Howrah Metro station will be the country’s deepest at 33 m below ground level. 

The East-West Metro between Salt Lake Sector V and Howrah Maidan, also called the ‘Green Line’, stretches over 16.6 kilometres. Services between Salt Lake Sector V and Seladah have already commenced. 

KMRC officials said that commercial operations between Esplanade and Howrah Maidan will commence in a couple of months if all goes well.

However, no concrete deadline for completion of the Sealdah to Esplanade section has been set due to the challenges faced due to the subsidences. 

Kolkata was the first city to get a Metro Rail in October 1984, nearly 18 years before the country’s second Metro Rail started operating in Delhi in December 2002. But since then, Delhi and other cities have left Kolkata way behind in Metro Rail services.